Rona Ambrose named interim Conservative leader

Rona Ambrose is the new interim leader of the Conservative party, and David Sweet is the party’s caucus chair.

Ambrose, the last health minister in the Harper government, was chosen by the Conservative party caucus this afternoon. She beat out seven other candidates for the job: Rob Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Diane Finley, Erin O’Toole, Mike Lake, Michelle Rempel and Denis Lebel.

“I can’t thank my caucus colleagues enough for putting their confidence and trust in me,” she told reporters in a brief media scrum after the vote. “I’m extremely proud to be leader of the opposition…We are going to have the strongest opposition party that Canadians have ever seen.”

At her side, Conservative MP and former Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney noted in French that Ambrose has experience in opposition and government. She was first elected in 2004.

“She’s a unifier, and we’re really proud to be at her side,” he said.

Jason Kenney, presumed to be a candidate for the permanent leadership role, tweeted his delight with the result.

The position comes with control over a budget in the order of $7 million, and a huge staff. The power to appoint MPs to significant roles, however — which could have given Ambrose a lasting influence on the direction of the party — was somewhat curbed with caucus’ decision to vote in favour of two of four rules in MP Michael Chong’s Reform Act.

Those four rules allowed for MPs to vote on the review and removal of the party leader; the election and review of the caucus chair; the expulsion and re-admission of caucus members; and the election of the interim leader.

Chong told reporters he was “thrilled” that the caucus voted in favour of two Reform Act rules, modifying another, and only rejecting one.

“Rule number one was adopted,” he said referring to the expulsion and re-admission of caucus chairs and members.

“Rule number two was adopted, concerning the election of the caucus chair — Mr. David Sweet will be the national caucus chair for the Conservative Party. Rule number three was rejected, which concerns review and removal of the permanent party leader by elected members of parliament. Rule number four was adopted in a modified form. Rule four, in its original form, would’ve restricted voting for the new interim leader to elected members of parliament. That rule was modified to allow both elected members of parliament and senators to vote for the new interim leader.”

Though the appeal of the salary boost that comes with the interim leader post is obvious, the position’s power to appoint the house leader, whip and caucus chair may have gone a long way to explaining why so many people wanted the job.

Though that power has been weakened, it’s still significant.

The budget for the Leader of the Official Opposition, which is determined by a formula (see here) based on the number of members — 99 in the Conservative case — means $3,637,906 million for interim leader’s office, $483,661 for the Whip’s office, $416,992 for the Opposition House Leader, $2,273,054 for the caucus research office — which is essentially controlled by the leader’s office — and hundreds of thousands of dollars for IT and translation.